What is the correct descent rate on finals?

[Bill Zarkov 1]

Too often I start getting GPWS call-outs for sink rate below about 500 ft. My descent rate seems to be around 500fpm at vapp so unsure what it should be - say for CRJ700?

[Crabby 28]

Your descent rate on final should be whatever speed/vspeed is needed to maintain a 3.0 degree descent.  That is normal.  There are exceptions, like London City's Nose Dive Blue Angles Fat Albert glide slope.  If you look at a chart you will see that they give you calculations.  For example the RNAV Zulu for 30R in KSTL the chart shows a descent angle of 3.0 degrees.  Per the chart that would be 743 fpm @ 140 Kts GROUND SPEED.  

 

As a rough rule of thumb, in jets that land in the neighborhood of 140-150 knots VREF, your descent rate should be around 800 fpm.  

 

The GPWS callouts happen when you are descending at or faster than something around  900 fpm at a certain altitude.  Not sure of the specifics.  

 

A 500 fpm descent would be in a Cessna 172

[Herman 1591]

The rule-of-thumb for any 3 degree descent path is to take half your ground speed and add a zero. In Crabby's example with a 140 Kt ground speed, the rule gives you 700 fpm, which is close enough to 743 to get you where you want to be. Especially if you're trying to fly a two pilot aircraft by yourself and you forgot to look at the chart for the descent rate. Plus, it's pretty hard to see the difference between 700 and 743 on the VS scale.